Widow of Longtime Congressman Dead
Posted/updated on: October 31, 2011 at 10:50 am
AUSTIN (AP/Staff) – East Texas native Beryl Pickle, widow of longtime Texas congressman Jake Pickle, has died. Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home in Austin said that Pickle died last Thursday. She was 93. Pickle was born in Rusk and grew up in Jacksonville. She attended Lon Morris College. She and Jake Pickle, whose first wife died in 1952, were married in 1960. Three years later, he won a seat in Congress. The congressman, who served in Washington for 31 years, died in 2005. Longtime aide Paul Hilgers told the Austin American-Statesman that Beryl Pickle had a keen sense of humor and kept her husband grounded. Stepdaughter Peggy Pickle says she came to politics reluctantly, “but once she got into it, she came to enjoy it.” Services will be this Thursday at First United Methodist Church in Austin.
